Please pray for me in this, my most trying hour, as I embark on this month-long trial of tribulations whereby I am attacked on all sides by RENOVATION NOISE literally right outside my bedroom as our main bathroom is being gutted. AND my disabled ass has to go down steep and scary stairs to pee.

As I've been On A Mental Health Journey—which involves a new psychiatric entry for my Collection of Diagnoses—I've also been thinking on community. There's obvious support in friends visiting. There are also tiktoks and memes to make me smile and Duolingo freezes, and those are just as meaningful.

Lolol my top five Spotify songs are literally all songs my 10 year old daughter listens to. Literally none of my Spotify wrapped are my own listens 😂

I see your fatphobic beauty standards and your thin male actors with overly chistled abs and the constant passive (or active) insistence that fat folks aren't sexy and I raise you one Erik Cavanaugh. Watch that fat man dance in literally any of his styles. Absolutely sexy as fuck. 1/2

I miss leggings and I also miss the "jeans in every colour of the rainbow", and I would very much like it if we could bring both of those back, and I don't care who hears me say it.

I'm sorry but it's hilarious to watch US politicians continue to complain about our anti-tariff ad. Like, y'all are literally funding a large chunk of our right-wing movement but we're the interfering assholes for replaying your own previous president's words? It makes me laugh every time.

I'm helping my 12 year old fill out a D&D character sheet and realizing he has atrocious penmanship. My apologies to everyone past and future who has to read my kid's writing.

Star Trek is always so relatable. I’m human and I also don’t have any money…

If you're doing any sort of Medieval #WorldBuilding, for game design or novels or whatever, & you haven't seen Ruth Goodman's "Tudor Monastery Farm", you're in for a treat. I highly recommend her & the crew, & not just for this particular series. #ttrpg #history www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p...

give every transgender person a mech suit

My doctor, after discussion of a symptom leads me to think of a totally different one: "okay hold on, you're leading me on another rabbit trail." Me: "Um you didn't put this bitch on this highest possible dosage on their ADHD meds for nothing. You're talking to the queen of creating rabbit tails.🤷"

Oh right, I have a lot of new followers since the Canadian election in *checks watch* April 😭 Canada has a minority govt (it's shy of just a couple seats to be majority). All budgets are a confidence vote. If you do not have the confidence of the house, the govt falls, and triggers an election.

I've been offline the last few days but the news of Alice Wong's death felt like a punch to the gut, for reasons that are hard to articulate. Best I can fit into words right now is: no one values the lives of disabled people except we who are disabled, so losing each other always hurts all the more.

My bluesky mentions are constantly a stream of people who have low to no reading comprehension but think they are the exception. What's more, I believe "knowing I am not the audience for this and should skip this" is very much a part of reading comprehension. And bsky fails this one. Constantly.

This is SO WILD, I'm stunned. Like holy shit, no wonder we've got a media literacy crisis: we've been teaching the fundamentals of even basic literacy so completely wrong.

ever since I learned about three-cueing I've developed infinitely more patience for replies on social media. mfers literally do not know how to read. people are walking around conjuring random meanings into words they don't know, and they don't know a lot of words. it's crazy

I just displayed an inappropriate amount of gratitude towards my pharmacist and their staff, because after MULTIPLE YEARS of having to play DOUBLE dispensation charges for both 45mg and 55mg capsules, they FINALLY could get the 100mg Foquest capsules. My "act normal" filter was very late to kick in

There's a particular type of worldbuilding happening in the new-ish genre of cozy, contemporary paranormal romance novels, of towns and communities built to serve the wildly diverse needs of their different species, and I need to know that people are studying this for Crip models of accessibility—

A retired Bishop preached at my Anglican church, teaching about Jesus' "woes". After a little entomology lesson comparing "woe" to a frustrated groan, he invites suggestions for modern substitution. After the service ends I, very helpfully unironicly suggest the word he's looking for is "fuck."

One of my best data points for my longer-term mental health is the family monthly chalkboard. When I'm doing well it gets updated every month. When I'm not... well BEHOLD the calendar on this day of our lord October 27...😂 (It's been a rough couple of months but I think we've found some stability?)

Since I have a lot of rural Alberta folks who follow me: the Edmonton police are looking for anyone with property with an old well north of Edmonton to contact them (more details in the video). It's for a cold case. www.youtube.com/watch?v=PtRo...

One of my kiddos has a complete meltdown this morning because... Their roblux background was set to dark instead of light... Clearly we're dealing with week 3 of the teachers' strike SO WELL 🫠😂

The other day I saw a tiktok that acknowledged scrolling social media for the continual drip-dripping hits of dopamine is a perfectly acceptable form of self-medicating pain-relief for those of us with chronic pain and illnesses, and let me tell you, I have not been able to stop thinking about it.

Reddit is such a fun place because you'll be on the Critical Role subreddit and someone will post a picture of Liam taking notes with a multicolour pen (the classic BIC) and some [probably autistic] person will go "excuse me, I know of a better multi-pen", because OF COURSE and now I need this pen.

In the years between my higher ed job and Paizo, I was getting by as a freelancer, which is HARD. More than once mutual aid kept me housed and fed. Folks turned up for me when I needed it most. Let's do the same for @oregonthedm.bsky.social ! Please boost and, if you have a bit to give, please do.

The "AI" responses that Google gives about me and my work are consistently error-prone, which I know because I am me. If I know Google's "AI" responses give incorrect answers about things I know about, I can't trust it to give correct answers about things I don't know. So, no, I don't use it.

Gosh I forgot how cold fingers get in -1 weather. I need new mittens.

Look, I just think D&D's Giant Octopus stat block should better reflect their, like, independent tentacle brains. I don't know HOW, I just know that it SHOULD.

Every so often I'm hit with the very firm reminder that I grew up in a very rural Canadian prairie. Today, it's a scene in a contemporary romance where the man takes the woman on a date at the "skating rink" and I reread eight pages three times, confused until I remember rinks without ice do exist.

We are one week closer to the release of OMENS OF CHAOS, and the glorious return of Magic the Gathering long-form fiction!

I spent my miraculous 2 work hours today writing a scathing letter to everyone responsible for the Albertan teachers strike (ie all the government officials), and brainstorming a new D&D campaign. The latter might not sound like a good use of time, but it's my first joyful creative spark in months.

repost this if an editor has ever saved you from yourself

Because it feels relevant as we continue to evaluate the media and our representatives’ statements, my favorite way to identify the active vs. passive voice.

TODAY'S THE DAY! Making Enemies: Monster Design Inspiration for Tabletop Roleplaying Games, with cover illustration by @kroovv.bsky.social and interior illos by @jencmars.bsky.social, is now on shelves! Get it at your friendly local game store or through one of these links: spyandowl.com/making...

"It’s a beast. A monster. A behemoth. But it’s a behemoth of the very best kind. It’s a CR 30 epic boss of a book with a treasure hoard of inspiration. I don’t know what you expected from Keith Ammann, but it was probably this." Read the @scrollforinit.bsky.social review: scrollforinitiative....

Random thought: I really wish all video games had an accessibility setting to turn scrolling/unfolding text into instant-appearing text because wowow the unfolding text makes my eyes hurt and my head dizzy.

Look what came in the mail today! It's @themonstersknow.com's new book! I'll dig deeper into it, but I already love how this book is about so much more than just D&D. He has specific advice in each section for Pathfinder, Shadowdark, Cypher System, and Cal of Cthulhu, in addition to 2014/2024 D&D.

Indigenous Nations Plan Tariff-Free Trade Corridor Across US-Canada border ino.to/agDxSX2

I'm too exhausted to form gooder words right now, but damn Alberta, way to show up. The huge crowds in support of the teachers already today before the official strike day tomorrow, and the reaffirmation of concrete support from so many other unions? That right there is some desperately needed hope.

Well damn. See that blue pill in this morning's organizer that I only just noticed apparently got stuck and not consumed? That's 55 of my 100mg methylphenidate prescription and the reason I was so damn antsy today.

We did not weather nigh two decades of “lazy millennials are destroying every single industry” to turn around and do this to Gen Z!!!

Has anyone written a paper on investigating fandom's internalized racism, homophobia and sexism using Actual Play* fans reactions? If not, it's going on my list. 🤌🏽 *I wish my new line of research on performance and bleed didn't mean I have to occasionally read reddit, but here we are.

My entire life can probably be summed up by the way I'm flipping back and forth between two book series I'm reading: The Lord of the Rings (some of the best books ever written), and a monster smut series whose best passages honestly would rate a very generous C- in the best light only while high.

Between Sept ‘22 and Sept ‘23, my kid’s high school population jumped by 600 students. 600. One high school. Premier Smith has touted 3000 new teachers as part of this gov’ts offer to the ATA. Here’s the catch: #ableg 1/ 🧵

My entire life can probably be summed up by the way I'm flipping back and forth between two book series I'm reading: The Lord of the Rings (some of the best books ever written), and a monster smut series whose best passages honestly would rate a very generous C- in the best light only while high.

Who would you like to hear talk about FOLKLORE in #ttrpg? For our upcoming twitch panel, we're talking myth, legend & folk tales & folk traditions. Who should we invite to the table? As always priority to PoC, & in the case specifically, to under-represented (or oft-misrepresented) traditions.

LET'S GO COVER TIME! I am pleased to have written about the idea of "indie" in Actual Play for the edited collection now titled, PLAYING OUTSIDE THE MAINSTREAM: ESSAYS ON INDIE TABLETOP ROLEPLAYING GAMES -- now available for pre-order (tell your library)

Here's the free-for-everyone version, reposted to my blog! www.brandesstoddard.com/2025/09/larp...

"Wait, Ben Robbins is posting GMing advice? What year is this???" arsludi.lamemage.com/index.php/48...

I wonder whether this is the time to mention that there's a revised edition on the way …